The Electronics Junkyard Dismantlers of Guiyu
Fri, Jul 4, 2008
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Guiyu was once a peaceful rice-growing village located in the eastern province of Guangdong, southern China – that is – until a surge of broken computers and laptops arrived from the Western World. Since then, Guiyu has been proclaimed the World’s electronic-waste capital.
For around $1.50 USD, around 60,000 local workers including children risk their lives and limbs to scramble for anything of value out of your old computer. Some workers go the river bank, located just outside the village, where they make small fires to heat an extremely toxic mixture dubbed Aqua Regia. It contains 75 per cent pure Hydrochloric Acid and 25 per cent pure Nitric acid. Using the mixture, workers try to extract the small amount of gold found within a number of electronic parts such as computer chips. This method is extremely harmful both to humans and environment, as it produces sulfur dioxide and chlorine. At best, protection comes in the form of only a pair of rubber boots or a pair of gloves; but many of the workers endure a day’s labor without any protection at all.
image via
Others try to extract small remains of toner from the printer cartridges by using paint brushes, producing a toner dust clouds. In time, workers suffer respiratory problems, due top the carbon inside the dust clouds.
These are mere examples of what illicit and damaging recycling activities are being executed in Guiyu. The village itself is covered in e-waste. The front and back yards of the villagers are cluttered with the remains of old computer keyboards, disk drives and plug sockets, as work is often brought back home. Without a shadow of a doubt, these activities have a tremendously damaging impact on human health, as well as the surrounding environment.
People in Guiyu cannot drink local water: it has to be trucked from a town 30 miles away in impossible circumstances. River contamination levels are extremely high, (as much as double European safety levels above the limit), yet still, locals are obliged to use the water to wash dishes and laundry. In 2001, Basel Action Network (BAN) delegates even came to Guiyu to investigate the situation and one villager told them that many locals have become weak if not sick.
image via
The BAN team found that much of the electronic waste came from places like L.A., as well as other American states. So if you plan a trip to Guiyu, chances are, the remains of your old computer may be scattered along the roadside or near the banks of the river.
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“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else.”
July 4th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I fail to see why many computers end up in the waste in the first place. I’ve got computers that are over ten years old that run just fine; there’s no need to rush out and get the “latest and greatest” when all you do is email, word processing and web surfing. While I run Linux on my systems, I have a friend who is still running Windows 98 (works fine, even with new versions of Java, Flash and other “upgrades”). XP will run perfectly well on a five or even ten year old system.
When we’re told that it’s time to throw out a perfectly good system because it doesn’t have the resources to run the latest bloatware, it’s time to start looking at alternatives that are easier on our pocketbooks as well as the environment.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Wow that is so sad! We ship all of our computer garbage there, they in turn return the favor by sending us toys lined with lead for our children. Seems a fair trade to me. http://www.an0n.mirrorz.com
July 6th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
when computers really break, due to things like electrostatic damage, mechanical failure, physical breakage of boards, power surges, and so on, they are almost impossible to fix by oneself and it is much cheaper to buy a new one than try to fix them.
other things such as CRT monitors are downright dangerous to try to fix because of high voltage inside.
whatever it is, even after those 10 years you mention the computers have to be disposed of some place. recycling computer parts is a good idea but it needs to be done under safe conditions in industrial recycling centres built for the purpose, not by children on the street.
using RoHS components is also a good way to reduce lead and such. however, out here in the USA, there is no regulation and lead-containing parts are cheaper. i’m a university graduate student and my professor does NOT buy RoHS because it’s more expensive. i’m not in a position to argue because he could fire me. trouble is, most people in the USA go for cheaper, not better for the environment, and this isn’t going to change without some legal system changes.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
No matter how effective, convinience we can take the advantage of our opportunities such as that we can live on the earth everyday, while the science-technnology are sophisticated by human-bings, we shouldn’t forget why we are living here. This is why not only human-bings but also all componets around environments correlated to plants, animals, water, atomospere. Many dumpings thrown away by people have been affected people’s body in reverse as the feedback in their life.
Though this issues, I thought that I had to look for what I can do for our earth as soon as possible.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
People these days are too ignorant to realise what they are doing, probably intentionally so. They just want the new god damn iphone.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Re: Mike:
I know the reason I and many others buy new computers every 2 or 3 years is to keep up with the latest in computer gaming technology, in order to play games that aren’t available/desirable on consoles. Yes, you can upgrade a single computer part-by-part, but even that’s only a viable option for so long before the processor & motherboard become obsolete.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
leased, low energy “thin” computing for institutions with software/service contracts should be promoted.. the connectivity required is needed anyhow..
I have used the following with great success:
http://www.nomachine.com/
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/servermanager/terminalservices.mspx
Microsoft should make terminal server easier to evaluate… IMHO
also, an S1-like (sleep & aware) power state in desktops should be explored for thin client always on etc…. when client processing isnt necessary…
July 6th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
You said it Mike. I agree with you 100%.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I agree in many ways with your theory. Unfortunately the cost of new components when considering the increased power is many times much more valuable then the inherent space and maintenance which older machines require.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
There are roughly 500 million computers thrown out each year. Reducing that number by using them longer isn’t a great solution simply because it would require world-wide social engineering (i.e. telling people what to do and hoping they do it).
The only proper solution to this problem is regulating ‘corporate responsibility’ by enforcing laws that would require electronics makers/distributors to reclaim the waste and process it properly. This would increase the cost of each unit as the industry would be required to setup all the channels necessary to reclaim, process and recycle these products, but in the end it is the only responsible thing to do.
July 6th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Not to be the grammar police, but when the article refers to “L.A., and other American states” does the author mean the city of Los Angeles or the state of Louisiana? Because the sentence should either be “Los Angeles, and other American cities” or “Louisiana, and other American states”.
July 6th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
But, but Apple told me to buy…
July 6th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
absolutely appalling, we should be ashamed of ourselves and our over consumption.
July 6th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Mike, maybe other people have different needs than you – some of us uses computers professionally, so we need computers that’s fairly up to date. We can make do with less, but it will mean a cost in productivity.
Others use computers for gaming, and to be able to run the newest games requires top of the line computers.
July 6th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I’ll have to agree with Mike, my desktop is over 7 years old and it runs perfect and it still has the original XP. I just updated it to SP 1 then SP2 once SP2 came out. I have 2 laptops, one is from work and one is personal I bought and it works perfect. I only got rid of one laptop because it died on me. I had it running Linux for over a year but the laptop was over 8 years old and it would cost to much to fix it.
I still don’t have a LCD monitor. I still have the old CRT monitor. I don’t need the room, it’s 17″ and it’s perfect for me. It’s heavy and big but it doesn’t bother me at all.
As for upgrading your software, if it’s running fine, leave it alone. Like my desktop, I just got SP2 recently just to see if it was any improvement but other then that, I could of left it alone. I’m still running Office 2000. No need to upgrade anything.
July 6th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
China doesn’t care about its own people. Sad but true. Both the countries that sell it and those that buy it are equally to blame.
July 6th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
What i would like to know is what brought the waste there in the first place, this article and none of the sources have that information.
July 6th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
These people are stupid enough to pollute their only water source and scavage for parts rather then continue to grow rice, I see nothing in this article that states that this isn’t a voluntary action on the part of the town. The only people I feel even partially bad for is the children who have such stupid parents.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
We should be ashamed of our consumption??? How about China should be ashamed of it’s human rights abuses! How does any civilized society allow it’s people… and it’s environment to be polluted like this? The answer is greed. It’s not American greed to purchase a new computer and to offer the old one to be recycled, but it’s Chinese local goverment and regional governmental greed that does not pass and enforce safety laws. Well economic disparity may be leveling… and that may be China’s only hope. — Perhaps America should pass a law disallowing export but to countries that have safety laws in place. It sounds good on paper but ultimately local governments must enforce their own safety laws due to any openness in commerce.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
The computers there didn’t just get dumped by some American recycling company. The article is cartoonishly misleading in that respect. OH NO! THE BAD GUYS ARE CUTTING DOWN ALL THE TREES! No, the bad guys work for a timber company and they’re trying to scratch out a living. Likewise, somebody in Guiyu owns a recycling company. This company is responsible for the pollution and the unsafe work practices. Don’t blame America for this.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I agree with Mike, and with Kevin. There is no reason why a 7 year old computer needs to be thrown out – they can and should be donated to organizations that will reuse them. The Salvation Army does this; someone who can’t afford a new computer would be just fine with a 7 year old system for doing mail and the like.
I also agree with Kevin – An American recycling company isn’t sending this stuff to Guiyu. There is a chinese recycling firm paying these people to do this stuff. Think about it – where would a rice farmer in China get Aqua Regia? Don’t blame a consumer for recycling a system; blame the recycling company the system eventually ended up at for using unsafe practices.
July 7th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
It seems that some companies have got the message. I recently had to have a property cleared after a relative died, and, after a long search, found a company called City Clearances to do the job. After doing the probate valuation, they came along to clear the house. I asked Jeff, the director, what would happen to the contents, and he said that only 10% at most would go to landfill. In particular, all computer equipment, including a 10 year old Dell, would be recycled. For E waste, he has a technician who refurbishes and repairs old equipment, particularly computers, and he assured me that ‘almost nothing’ was thrown away. With computers, the low spec ones are sent to companies in the UK who use them as ‘dumb terminals’. I thoroughly recommend City Clearances, http://www.cityclearances.com as a company with the right ethos when it comes to environmental issues.
As they say on their website, recycling is not only energy efficient, but it makes good financial sense too, as there is money to be made in selling refurbished goods. (although the profits are small, the environmental gain is large.)
July 8th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Thank you for writing up on this topic. It is important that first people are aware of this growing disaster. If anything will be done about it first people do need to be educated so that they can then make better choices as a consumer.
Also, thank you for placing my blog link under the Guiyu child picture. It has helped bring some traffic to my blog as well. I will be checking back to your site. Best wishes!
July 14th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
i have to wonder…do these countries like china and india PAY american corporations for their scraps so that they can cheaply employ thousands of people?
no doubt this is grossly irresponsible on the part of the united states–of all nations, we should be pioneering a global effort to reduce pollution from e-waste since we have so much electronic junk in our lives. i for one am a bit less ignorant after having read this article.
May 20th, 2009 at 3:55 am
greenpeace should back off.sure its bad for the people, but take away their waste, you take away all they have. they will never grow there again, too contaminated, remains(plastic shards and toxic residues and contamination) will be there forever. they all looked pretty happy. greenpeace pushes their belifs on people more aggresively than islamists
November 15th, 2009 at 5:32 am
Well, *fuck*. Instead of paying to ship this shit half way across the world to a third world country and destroy the local environment, they could be giving this stuff away to electronic hobbyists here in the states. It’d be a win-win situation, positive sum. What we’ve got right here and now is a lose-lose situation, negative sum. What is wrong with people?